***WEDNESDAY PM UPDATE: Seattle reached 79 degrees for a second consecutive day on March 20—smashing the daily record by 10 degrees in the process. The record for warmest March temperature ever is now shared by both March 19 and 20, 2019. Additionally, three of the top five warmest March days in Seattle since 1894 have occurred in a three-day span (including March 18, 2019, with a high of 76 degrees). ***
It’s never been this warm in March before.
An unprecedented blast of late-winter heat sent the mercury soaring in Seattle today, with the city reaching 79 degrees in the mid-afternoon hours. The summerlike temperatures— the average daily high during our warmest part of the year is 77 degrees—set a new mark for the warmest March day on record, eclipsing the 78-degree reading logged at Sea-Tac Airport on March 29, 2004. Seattle weather records date back to 1894.
What caused the record warmth?
The unseasonable warmth was aided in large part by strong easterly winds that descended the western slopes of the Cascades and fanned out, engulfing the Seattle metro in a dry, breezy heat. Gusts at Sea-Tac reached 35 mph midday today—fresh off the heels of 30-mph gusts yesterday, which brought the first round of 70-degree readings to the region.
Besides setting a new temperature record for the month, today marked the second consecutive day that Seattle broke a daily high temperature record. Today’s record at Sea-Tac of 63 degrees was toast by 9 a.m.!
So, where do we go from here? Another warm, blustery day is on tap for tomorrow, with highs again nearing 80 degrees. If Seattle does manage to hit 80, it will mark the earliest we’ve ever done so in the calendar year (the current record belongs to April 1, 1987, with a high of 82 degrees).
After tomorrow, the weather will cool down significantly—with highs dropping back into the 60s on Thursday, then into the upper 50s Friday into Saturday as rain chances increase for the first weekend of spring.
Even though it already feels like summer.
[…] the Seattle area, we’ve been having record-breaking heat the past few days. It’s pleasant but quite a jarring change after the record-breaking […]